One of today’s most sought-after Czech tenors is Jaroslav Březina, a soloist with the National Theatre in Prague. He is a graduate of the Prague Conservatoire, and he took private lessons with the legendary singer Václav Zítek. He devotes himself to both opera and the concert repertoire. On opera stages in this country and abroad, he has sung countless roles, the most important of which have been Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Tito (La clemenza di Tito), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Count Almaviva (The Barber of Seville), le Dancaïre (Carmen), Alfredo (La traviata), Vašek and Jeník (The Bartered Bride), Michálka (The Devil’s Wall), Jiří (The Jacobin), Jirka (The Devil and Kate), Laca (Jenůfa), and Nemorina (L’elisir d’amore). To give at least an idea of his concert repertoire, he has sung Janáček’s Diary of One Who Disappeared at the Teatro Real in Madrid. He has to his credit a large number of internationally successful recordings, such as Zelenka’s coronation opera Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis, for which he won a prestigious Cannes Classical Award (2002). He won a 2015 Thalia Award.

Renowned soprano Alžběta Poláčková graduated in voice from Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts. She has won many honours in prestigious singing competitions including First Prize and the Ema Destinnová Prize in London’s Anglo-Czechoslovak Trust Competition and the National Theatre Prize in the Antonín Dvořák Competition in Karlovy Vary. Since 2003 she has been a regular soloist with Prague’s National Theatre, performing roles like Zerlina and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Kristina in The Makropulos Affair, the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Mařenka in The Bartered Bride, Giannetta in The Elixir of Love, Terinka in The Jacobin, and Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice. With the Prague State Opera she rendered the title role in Dvořák’s Rusalka. She has performed in prestigious venues abroad such as L’Opéra Bastille in Paris and England’s Glyndebourne Festival. She also sings concert repertoire, in which she has already appeared for example in Vienna and Krakow. She collaborates with numerous outstanding conductors including Ivan Fischer, Tomáš Netopil, Ondrej Lenárd and Jakub Hrůša.

Conductor Tomáš Netopil, known around the world as one of the most talented Czech conductors, is now in his tenth (and final) year as the general music director of the Aalto Musiktheater and the Philharmonie Essen. This season, awaiting him on his home stage will be premieres of Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Kampe’s Dogville, and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. He will also be conducting a new production of Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. As the Czech Philharmonic’s principal guest conductor, he will lead concerts at Prague’s Rudofinum and also at the Smetana Litomyšl and Janáček May festivals, of which he is the president. Other highlights from this season include concerts with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Montpellier, and the opening concert of the festival Concentus Moraviae, where he will be at the helm of the legendary Concentus Musicus Wien.

He is the artistic director at the successful international Summer Music Academy in Kroměříž, which he founded in 2018. Tomáš Netopil also has strong ties to the Dvořák Prague Festival: he was its artist-in-residence for the 2017 season, and in 2020 and 2021, the Dvořák Prague Youth Philharmonic appeared at the festival under his baton in cooperation with his Kroměříž academy.

In addition to productions at the Aalto Musiktheater in Essen, Tomáš Netopil has led many important opera performances at the Saxon State Opera in Dresden (La clemenza di Tito, Rusalka, The Bartered Bride, The Cunning Little Vixen, Halévy’s La Juive, and Busoni’s Doktor Faust), the Vienna State Opera (Idomeneo, Die Freischütz, Leonore), the Dutch National Opera (Jenůfa), and the Grand Théâtre de Genève (The Makropulos Affair).

Tomáš Netopil has appeared on concert stages with many renowned orchestras. Besides the Essen and the Czech Philharmonic, these include the Orchestre National de France, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Zurich’s Tonhalle-Orchester, the Orchestre de Paris, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, and the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

Tomáš Netopil studied violin at the P. J. Vejvanovský Conservatoire in Kroměříž and conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts. He also continued his studies at the Royal Academy in Stockholm under Professor Jorma Panula and at the Aspen Summer Music School in the USA, where he won the top prize of the American Conducting Academy in 2003 and 2004. He returns to Aspen regularly as a guest conductor. In 2002, he won the Sir George Solti Conducting Competition in Frankfurt am Main.

Tomáš Netopil has made highly acclaimed CDs under the Supraphon, OehmsClassics, Radioservis, Dynamics labels.

Source: HarrisonParrott

Mezzo-soprano Veronika Hajnová graduated from the Conservatoire and the College of Performing Arts in Bratislava before continuing her education in several master classes. In 2002 she won the CNIPAL prize in the Belvedere International Singing Competition in Vienna, and twice she has been nominated for a Thalia Prize. While still a student she performed in the opera company of the Josef Kajetán Tyl Theatre in Plzeň, and in 2004 she became a regular soloist with the Prague State Opera. Presently she is a member of the corps of soloists of Prague’s National Theatre as well as of the National Theatre in Brno. Among her major roles to date have been Amneris in Aida, Azucena in Il trovatore, Ježibaba in Rusalka, and Carmen. As Amneris and Carmen she has also appeared in several tours abroad, including performances in Japan, Spain, Portugal, France, and Hungary. She performs songs and solo roles in large choral works as well, counting among her greatest triumphs the part of Zefka in Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Vanished  at L’Opéra Bastille in Paris, and participation in Verdi’s Requiem  in Marseille’s Opera Municipale.

Bass Jiří Sulženko has long been one of the most esteemed Czech performers in both operatic and concert repertoire. Although he began his career as a contrabass player, later he studied voice, which was his secondary field upon graduation from the Prague Conservatoire. After brief engagements in Olomouc and Brno, in 1990 he became a regular soloist with the National Opera in Prague where he has performed numerous roles including Leporello in Don Giovanni, Kecal in The Bartered Bride, the Water Goblin in Rusalka, Zaccaria in Nabucco, Scarpia in Tosca, and Bartolo in The Barber of Seville. In many of these roles and others he has appeared on important operatic stages abroad—in Sweden, France, Spain, Holland, Austria, Germany, and Japan. In 2010 he debuted in Milan’s La Scala in Janáček’s From the House of the Dead. He also engages intensively in concert singing, having appeared in important venues in various countries of Europe, the United States, Japan, Brazil, and Australia. Since the 2013-14 season he has been a regular soloist with the Janáček Opera of the National Theatre in Brno.

Jitka Čechová ranks among the most successful Czech pianists of the present time. After studies at the Prague Conservatoire she continued her musical education at Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts as well as in post-graduate studies with Eugen Indjic in Paris and Vitali Berzon in Freiburg. She has won honours in numerous international competitions including the Chopin Competition in Mariánské Lázně. She performs in important concert halls in Germany, Austria, Scotland, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, and elsewhere, and collaborates with many outstanding orchestras including the Munich Symphony, the Prague Philharmonia, and the Bamberg Symphony. A devoted promoter of music by Czech composers, she has made a highly-praised complete recording of the piano music of Bedřich Smetana for Supraphon. Zdeněk Lukáš dedicated to her his Third Piano Concerto, which she premiered to great acclaim on a tour of Germany. Another major part of her work is performance in chamber music: for many years she has served as pianist in the Smetana Trio, one of the most successful chamber ensembles in Czechia.

The Žerotín Academic Chorus was founded in 1880 in Olomouc. From the very outset it formed one of the chief pillars of Czech cultural life in Moravia, presenting concerts, giving operatic presentations, and working with some of the foremost Czech artists of the time such as Josef Bohuslav Foerster and Ema Destinnová. Most important, however, were probably its contacts with Antonín Dvořák, who entrusted Žerotín with the Czech premieres of his Requiem and Te Deum, dedicated his oratorio Saint Ludmila to the ensemble, and on several occasions conducted the choir in person. Presently the chorus has about thirty-five members, but additional singers are enlisted as needed. Choirmaster is Pavel Koňárek. The repertoire is very broad, encompassing works by masters of the Baroque such as Bach, the Classical period (Mozart, Salieri, and Beethoven), Romanticism (Rossini and Dvořák), and the twentieth century (Janáček, Stravinsky, and Gershwin). The choir concertizes regularly both in Czechia and abroad.

The Vox Iuvenalis choir of Brno, which will celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary next year, was founded by conductor Jan Ocetek who still remains its director. Consisting mainly of students and graduates of colleges in Brno, the ensemble has earned a prestigious position as a high-quality young chorus, confirmed by numerous awards in international competitions and participation in diverse musical projects both at home and abroad. The choir won first prize in the International Sacred Music Choir Competition in Vilnius and the highest honours in the International Youth Choir Festival in Veldhoven, The Netherlands. It also performs in operas and experimental musical presentations. Since 2000 it has been operating under the aegis of the Brno University of Technology.